SladePoppa who are you???Please let us know
thanks

We traded Prep days due to a tour bus that is coming in on Thursday. So, today we went to Ft. Ticonderoga, crossed Lake Champlain on a ferry and drove up NY state a little ways then crossed over a bridge back into VT.
The trip was fun, and the difference in the landscape was interesting. Less rolling(rumpled _ ) hills closer to NY.
We got to go to the Morgan Horse farm which was fun and interesting. They had one of the horses hooked up to a surrey; which was pretty on the grassy hillside. We stopped in Middlebury and went to the Danford Pewter factory. Such beautiful pieces. We stopped at "The Fool on the Hill" shoppe. It is a garden green house type of place. They had beautiful hanging baskets. (and large golden retrievers) (very friendly) .
We wanted to go to the Vermont soap factory but they were not open and will not be until the 10th. I was disapointed.

The monument was brought in by rail, from Barre, VT. (barry) ...that was the easy part.

Then the last 5 1/2 were harder and had to be done by wagon (that weighed 8 tons) and 22 horses, the wagons had wheels that were 22 in. wide that had to roll over 2 10" hard wood planks

so it wouldn't sink in the mud.

It took 23 days for the base pieces and 33 days to get the monument to the site.

Here is what you have been waiting for.
The building on the right is the visitors center
the building on the left is the directors home and the office the missionaries work out of. There are towns(villages) that include houses and businesses. townships take in all the farm land , so Royalton and sharon butt up against each other. so the visitors center is in Sharon and the direcotrs home is in royalton. Thus Joseph Smith 's home sat on the boundry of Royalton and Sharon. He says he was born in Sharon. the books I read say , he was born in the east bedroom , putting him in Sharon.

Here is what it looks like when we walk to work and an alternate route walking home.

A different view of the center as we come over the hil to work.

We went to Hanover yesterday on our Prep day.
We had to hang out at the hospital lav for a short time.
Then we spent the afternoon on Dartmouth's campus.
we ate down town, in a preppie sandwich shop. We found
there special collections library--which is beautiful by the way] they had a 1st edition Book of Mormon they actually let you hold]
and take pictures of. The leather was so soft, the print uneven and ]
the verses were in paragraph form not # verse form. Two girls came
afterward and ask us how we liked the book? I thought they were sister missionaries, NOT
they are 2 of 3 undergrad students that are members on campus.
they had been out to the center on Sunday and had Bro. McKinnon
give them the tour. it was fun to visit. One was a new convert of 5 months

today I had 2 girls 1 member and one non member, she ws afraid that I would force her
to be baptized if she went on the tour. where do they get this idea? I assured her I would not
bapitze her. It turned out great.

We have had beautiful weather this past week. It seems that will not last, as it must rain in order to keep it so green here. The Memorial has umbrellas at every entrance, for us and visitors to use. The wind is kicking up and the rains are headed this way. Dad took some pictures of the road we take people down(in a golf cart) to see the old turnpike road: that went from Vermont to Canada in the early 1800's. and the foundations of Soloman Mack's , and Daniel Mack's homes. We walk to the site each day (come rain or shine) , this just happened to be sunny. this is my 1st attempt at a video. It may be my last if it takes too long to load.

The photo of us together is one we had taken for the mission home. the other is in front of the "winnie the pooh " tree or honey tree on our hike

We have just completed our 2nd prep day. We climbed to the top of Patriarch Hill, which is behind the visitors center. 1.3 miles up and 1.3 miles down. yea!!!for me. We did our climb with the other center couple, the Vorwallers'. We really like them, I think she is very nice. So we hiked together. Then we went to Montpeler(VT. capital) pretty building. I am putting in some pictures of Sister McKinnon , Sister Vorwaller, and I out in the golf cart-- going to the old stone bridge and the Solomon and Daniel Mack home foundations. I got to drive the cart to the church yesterday while I practiced the organ. (key word here is practice_+_)one of the pictures is of what is called artistic fungus. it looks like sea shells.The picture with the rock wall behind us is of the rock wall that used to go along the road from here to Canada. The one with the large tree behind is a picture of what is known as Hyrum's tree.

We started giving tours this week, we did 5 today. I have inclided some pictures that will give you an idea what we are up to. The 1st picture is Dad's first guest.. and the 2nd is of one of the residence halls at Dartmouth college.